Water, dust, general grubbiness. What can you get away with these days with lenses?

OK folks, I've had a quick search and couldn't see anything definitive, so thought I'd pop a topic up. Back in the day of using 35mm manual focus Minolta and Russian 6*6 (Lubitel for the win!) I was never too concerned about the odd splash of rain on my lenses, and if it was very wet, I'd just use a sort of inverted clear carrier bag which secured round lens front and viewfinder for taking footie shots in the rain.

I've acquired a K10D which is weather sealed (to a degree, I'm not going swimming with it!) but was curious as to what degree of water exposure the lenses themselves can get away with, and if there are any particular precautions to take.

I've waiting to collect a Pentax kit zoom lens (WR version) tamron 70 - 300 zoom, Tamron 90mm macro and a Sigma 50mm

What I'm curious about is just how wet can you let lenses get these days without causing lasting damage and what can you do to mitigate it if they do get damp. Plus how much more can you get away with with WR lenses. In an ideal world, I'd get DA* lenses, for speed, quality and sealing, but without a chunky lottery win, that's not happening any time soon!

May seem an obvious thing to people, but focussing power has always been provided by my fingers rather than motors in the past, and I don't want to knacker my nice new glass.

Thanks in advance

Fair enough question. When we had mechanical cameras, water could get inside quite easily and would eventually cause rust if it went too far.

When electronic cameras came on the scene, water was definitely not on as electronics and cameras do not mix. My mother-in-law dropped her Canon S30 in a lake recently. Instant death, to the camera that is. (I found her a replacement S50 on eBay)

WR offers new possibilities. I have been out in the pouring rain with a K20D and WR kit lens. No problems. I have been out in similar conditions with the K-5. No problems. The DA* lenses should inspire even greater confidence as their sealing is more complex.

You do occasionally hear about WR Pentax cameras failing in heavy rain despite being 'WR'. I expect this is a small minority, and it may well be due to a fault, but it does happen, so even with a weather sealed lens you should use some caution.

I recently had the experience that the lcd screen on my K7 showed spots of fog when shooting with a FA lens in very damp climate. My conclusion: If only the body is WR then it's not really worth much in certain situations. Preferring to shoot primes, that unfortunately means that I have little benefit of weathersealed bodies - which originally where the main attraction of Pentax for me.

I put the camera away and it worked fine since. How it is doing today, I don't know - it's now the property of a cambodian or Vietnamese guy ...

I used my K20D in Pacific Northwest downpours with no problems - I didn't have a WR lens either.

The K-5 has survived downpours, freezing temps and snowstorms. I had to chip the frozen snow off it after I'd been dog sledding. Again no WR lens on it, just the DA17-70. It all survived just fine.

I also took my Ds out whale watching in the pouring rain and that, and the Bigma, survived OK too.

Used both the 18-55 and 50-200 kit lenses (non-weather resistant versions) in constant steady rain in South America with no ill effects. The 18-55 took the worst punishment being out for a few hours in those the conditions. The 50-200 probably got less wet in the rainforest but it was being pointed upwards into the rain a lot of the time.

I was happy taking the risk with these lenses as I checked the secondhand prices before I left and figured that if they did fail in the rain I could pick up replacements cheaply.

I dropped an Olympus fit Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 in the sea once, with no lens caps on, then immediately rinsed it under a tap to get the salt off. It seemed to suffer no ill effects at all, and the guy I sold it to 6 months later(quite cheaply, I told him it's history) is still posting pictures taken with it on Flickr 2 years later. It's inspired me with a lot of confidence in using the lens in any conditions. I would expect the WR lenses are pretty impervious to rain.

I fell into a peat bog in the lake district with my k-x and a M 50mm 1.4. Peat and water got into the battery compartment and what looks like a tiny piece of moss got in behind the front element of the lens. Wiped it down a bit and it all seems fine. Bit of moss still in the lens, but I don't think it affects the lens - theoretical increase in flare I expect.

So, consensus seems to be, you can get away with more with WR or DA* lenses, but don't take the p*ss?

The other part of the question was
If it gets wet, the first thing I do is not demount the lens until the outside is dried off. The weather sealing doesn't include the mount when not attached to the camera!

Wash if it had salt or other contaminants, being careful not to pour water in the body opening! Dry off the outside as best as possible, a gentle blow with warm air (hair dryer)is a good way after a towelling . Then if you think there may have been any water getting inside, put it in a sealed box with a large silica gel bag for some time when you get home.

Having said that, the sealed lenses seem good. I happily take them out in the rain, just drying off the outside and not changing the lens while wet.

I've dealt with a mobile phone dropped thast had been dropped into sea water.
Rinse of with clean tap/bottled water then rinse with surgical spirits.

Alcohol absorbs water and will rinse away the water then dries of leaving no trace. Take out any batteries, sim/sd cards before any treatment. Don't panic as patience and a warm room are the order of the day.

Happily I've never had to deal with a camera that's been in salt water, but the theory seems good.

As with any suggestion, just because this worked for me please amke up your own mind before tackling.

Bernard

Oh I forgot in the past my Minolta has weathered camping in the Lake District and has come off the tops completely fogged (I assume a lowered air pressure sucked in moisture) No lasting damage occured over some 30 years. Biggest disaster was having a reel of 35 mm returned unprocessed due to "sticky" emulsion

Don't use surgical spirit on Pentax cameras, it will probably damage the plastics used. Alcohol based products denature plastics.

Just wipe with a damp cloth and allow to dry. If complete immersion has taken place that's a different topic to this thread and more drastic action is needed.

Thank you John. I wasn't aware of that but it worked perfectly with a Nokia mobile. I must admit that my Minolta X300 doesn't have a lot of plastic on it and a quick swab has kept it free of "grub"

Bernard

I don't believe it, you said the 'C' word!